ARLINGTON SECOND HALF SURGE BURIES WATERTOWN
By Jim Baldwin
Arlington, MA. 12/18/18. With senior co-captain James Gascoigne pounding the glass inside and sophomore Brendan McNamara draining threes from outside, the Arlington Spy Ponders boys basketball team exploded a tight game and drowned visiting Watertown in a deluge of second half offense for a 74- 55 home opener win.
McNamara poured in 21 second half points including four treys on his way to a game high 27. Gascoigne added 25 with 13 coming in the second half.
Down 32 – 30 at halftime Arlington turned on the heat at both ends scoring 26 third quarter points—20 combined from McNamara and Gascoigne—while their tight pressing man-to-man defense held the Raiders to just nine. Up 56-41 at the end of the third, the Spy Ponders coasted home.
Gascoigne opened things quickly with his array of low post moves scoring Arlington’s first seven points on a jump hook and two lay ins, one of them a spinning lefty reverse three point play and Arlington led 15-14 at the end of one.
But in the second quarter Watertown switched to a half court zone that trapped the Spy Ponders into turnovers in bunches spurring a quick 12-3 Raider run. With five minutes left in the half, they led by eight, 26-18 and were spoiling opening night in Arlington. Their slick sophomore guard Gabe Spinelli had a handful of assists and senior co-captain Harry Papadopoulos already had 14 points.
After a well-timed time out from Arlington coach John Bowler, forward Sam Swift came to the rescue. The senior co-captain immediately hit a three-pointer from the left elbow off a kick-out feed from McNamara. Seconds later he buried another from the right corner cutting the eight-point deficit to just two where it stayed until halftime.
From the start of the second half it was apparent that Arlington had discovered the vulnerable places under the Watertown zone as senior forward Jhalani Joshua prowled the baseline for easy scores. His third layup of the quarter at the five minute mark gave Arlington a lead they never relinquished at 41-39.
Joshua’s activity underneath opened things up for McNamara outside, and the Sophomore took advantage scoring 13 points in the quarter—nine of them from long range— which effectively determined the outcome.
Papadopoulos finished with 18 points for Watertown. Spinelli had 12 and senior co-captain Nicolas McDermott added 11.
Lexington is next for Arlington at home Friday night at 7.